Full Story  New York Times.Com
INDIANAPOLIS  For decades, hundreds of college players have gathered each year at the N.F.L.s scouting combine, where their strength is tested, their speed is timed and, in a test to measure their intelligence, they are asked questions like When a rope is selling 20 cents per 2 feet, how many feet can you buy for 30 dollars?

That query is part of the Wonderlic Personnel Test, a 12-minute, 50-item quiz that has been used by N.F.L. teams since the 1970s. It is, however, infamously unreliable in predicting football success  forgettable players have scored high, stars low  and there have been quiet concerns that it has a racial bias.

So the players at this weeks combine are facing a new segment in their extended job interviews: an hour long psychological assessment designed to determine and quantify the nebulous qualities that coaches have long believed make the most successful players  motivation, competitiveness, passion and mental toughness  and to divine how each player learns best. The new test, like the Wonderlic, is mandatory for the more than 300 players who attend, and it will be given for the first time Friday.